Let that happen. But you'll happen, Paul.
I am going to deliver a sermon that is written by Doctor Wes
Bredehoft in the Free Reformed Church of Launceston, TAS,
Australia and this message was first preached in Australia in
the year 2024. Beloved congregation of Jesus
Christ, it's hard not to begin a sermon related to the Seven
Commandment without stating what is obvious, and that is that we
live in an age of sexual license and that means that just about
anything goes. Casual.
Hookups arranged through mobile apps like Tinder are now
considered normal. Fewer people wants to get
married and most people prefer to choose to cohabit or to enter
into a live in setup. And when people do get married,
their marriage don't last very long.
Pilipinas we don't have the divorce law yet, but in other
countries like in Australia, the average marriage in Australia
lasts only for 13 years and the couple most of them get
separated already at the nine year marked at the two posts
Amanda broke broken marriage Natos Among a breakdown among a
marriage, almost always the cause is the infidelity of one's
spouse or both of them. And beloved, we would be kidding
if we will say that this sexual license does not happen inside
the church. We know what the Bible teaches,
we know what the Seven Commandments says, but we also
know that only a few people is committed into keeping the 7th
Commandment, and so maybe we just expect the church goers
will leave sexually immoral lives la Luna Luna Tabata.
And what do we do? Do we just look the other way
and pretend that it does not happen?
Or perhaps we'll provide the teenagers or the younger
generations with a means so that they don't get pregnant out of
wedlock, so that they will not embarrass themselves or the
church iguana. We do is what we do is keep the
Seven Commandment. But wink, wink, nudge, nudge, we
know you won't. The church in Thessalonica faced
the same world of sexual license, too.
As new Christians, they've been excited and they've been
conscientious about following God's ways in terms of their
sexuality. In the passage First
Thessalonians that we have read a while ago, Paul encourages
them to keep going on this direction.
And these words convicts us and encourages us to, because if
we've been committed to sexual integrity, then God says go and
do it more, do it more and more. However, if we have not been
committed and if we have given ourselves to sexual immorality
or we have done the wink, wink, nudge, nudge routine, then God
calls us to turn away from our sins and to see how it does not
fit with being a Christian. That's why this afternoon the
sermon that I'm going to deliver can be summarised in the
following title. That God, that God's will is
that we abstain from sexual immorality.
And this afternoon we are going to learn the following points.
Number one, that the command comes in and through our Lord
Jesus Christ #2 that the call is to holiness.
And then lastly, that the consequences of disobedience is
grave. But before that, let us go to
the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank You for
this opportunity to learn under the preaching of Your Word.
Father, we know that we have many shortcomings and failures
when it comes to obeying the Seven Commandment.
So we pray, Father, that you give us humble hearts as we
listen to Your Word. We pray that You help us lower
our pride and to subject our lives to the Seven Commandments.
We pray, Father, that though we are powerless to obey Your Word,
that Your Holy Spirit will empower us and that we will find
Your Son as our supreme motivation in obeying Your Word
by abstaining from sexual immorality.
So please guide us this afternoon as we hear Your word.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Our Catechism gives us a
teaching on the Seven Commandment in the context of
our response to what Christ has done for us in our salvation.
Actually, all of the 10 Commandments can be found under
the heading of our thankfulness in the Heidelberg Catechism, and
particularly young acting obedience to the 10 Commandment
is our thankfulness to the gift of salvation that we have
received from our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if we are going to keep that in our mind, if we will just put
the truth into our frontal globes, then it will be
impossible for us to approach Lord's Day 41 in a legalistic
way, as if somehow and goal, nothing is to measure up to God.
Parathyroid malitas no mahapatra.
Mahapatra, because that would be legalism.
But the passage that we are looking at in First
Thessalonians has a similar safeguard against legalism.
God's exhortation to the Thessalonians about sexual
integrity is framed with reference to our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. So if you want to know how to
live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God, we just have to
fix our eyes in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
And the instruction that Paul gave us about abstaining from
sexual immorality came through the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. So here the focus is
particularly on the teaching that the apostle Paul gave
before to the Christians in Thessaloniki in Thesalonika
about abstaining from sexual immorality.
But let us be clear about what that means. 1st and abstaining
from sexual immorality, our catechism use use the word
unchastity. You've been in Kanina and when
we say and chastity, it means or it speaks about any unchased
acts, gestures, words, thoughts, desires, and whatever that may
entice us into unchastity. But actually we could replace or
substitute the word unchastity with the word sexual immorality
that we have read in First Thessalonians because they both
have the same meaning. Because unchastity and sexual
immorality refers to any way of breaking the 7th commandment.
Now there are two broad categories of sin against the
second commandment. The first one is adultery.
And adultery as defined is the breaking of the bonds of
marriage, usually through a sexual intimacy with someone who
is not your spouse or someone who is a spouse of another
person. So adultery is cheating.
It is marital infidelity, but our Lord and Saviour Jesus also
clarified in the Sermon on the Mount that adultery also extends
to the last of our hearts. That's why Sinabi Puna acting
panino on that. If you look at a woman who is
not your wife with lust, then you are committing adultery with
that woman in your heart. And that equally applies not
only to men but also to women with respect to men.
And it also applies to same sex attraction.
No one is to have sexual desire for anyone that is not our
spouse. Unpo and Evie sabihin nun
commandment about adultery. But sometimes people will say,
well, you can look, but you just can't touch Kaya aluminum
important, you know, Sinasabe najiba.
But actually that is just another wink, wink, nudge nudge
approach. Because what the Lord says is
that if you look at a woman with lust kahit wala kangaroo in,
then you are already an adulterer.
And if we consider ourselves as Christians, then we should take
our Lord seriously when it comes to this command.
And the second broad category of the sin committed against the
Seven Commandment is the sin of fornication.
For indication refers to all sexual activity apart from a
marriage relationship. So if you are engaging in any
sexual activity with a person you are not married to, or
before you become married, then you are committing fornication,
then you have committed a sin against the 7th commandment.
So without going much further into more details, what I would
like to say or what I would like to stress is that fornication is
any sexual activity, so there is no wiggle room for us or for
anyone to rationalise their way out of it.
So in the United parties are being actual intercourse and Amy
nakita Lang naman no, when we say fornication, it's all kinds
of sexual activity, so we cannot justify our actions out of it.
So when Paul writes in verse 3, the Christians are to abstain
from sexual immorality, Paul is basically saying that all
Christians must avoid all forms of adultery and all forms of
fornication because any and every form of sexual
transgression is supposed to be off limits to all Christians, to
all people who claim that they have a relationship with Jesus
Christ. And notice Magkapatid that this
command does not come with an exception.
Hindus in Abbey New Apostle Paul that we should abstain from
sexual immorality unless you are 25 years old and below no what
long Sina bingo exemption or anything like that.
Because everyone in the church, young or old, if they consider
themselves to be Christians, then we are supposed to subject
ourselves under the 7th commandment.
And that is because Mahatid the teaching of Jesus Christ about
the second commandment comes in the Lord Jesus as it says in
verse 1 and comes through the Lord Jesus as it says in verse
2. And that is something that we
should not just gloss over with. That's just something that he
did that in Dapat. Let the one the moral of the
teaching is about abstaining from sexual immorality through
the lens of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
When the apostle Paul brought the teaching to the test
Solonians about abstaining from sexual immorality, he brought it
in the context of who Christ is and what Christ has done for all
of us. So you can imagine for a moment
the Apostle Paul there in Thessalonica, he's preaching to
the new Christians and epilogue, Nathan for a moment, Natalia
Inagi, Evesdrop Donsa teaching the apostle Paul someone new
Christians in Thessalonica and he will say something like this
one. Many of you have lived in the
world as worldly people. You have bagages.
You have committed fornication and adultery before you knew the
Lord Jesus Christ, but now you have heard the gospel and you
have believed it. You know that your past sins are
already forgiven because of what He did on the cross on your
behalf. You know that He took the hell
and the wrath of God that you deserve.
You are now at peace with God because you are now in Christ.
That would be the encouragement of the Apostle Paul.
So you can imagine what kind of relief you will hear if you are
a Christian in that time who have committed sexual immorality
before you became a Christian, or even after you became a
Christian. So much apathy.
The point is, there is grace at the cross for everyone who has
committed the sin, and it was true in the time of the Apostle
Paul, and it is still true until now.
But then the Apostle Paul will go on to say something like
this. But the good news gets even
better because the Lord Jesus also lived a perfect life in
your place when he was still on earth.
He did not commit A and a violation against the Seven
Commandment. He never fornicated, He never
committed adultery against anyone, but On the contrary, he
remained faithful to His bride, the Church.
And that is for our benefit, because when we trust in the
Lord Jesus, all of his obedience will be accounted to our side.
It will be for our own benefit so that when God looks at you,
God's looks through Christ and when He sees you, He sees
someone who has obeyed the seven commandment perfectly.
Kayapo I Partena Congregation Nantes Salonika, at that time,
I'm sure you will be encouraged because if I was there, then I
am sure that I would be encouraged as well.
And then the apostle Paul will go on to say, now you are in
Christ Jesus. You are united to Him by God's
grace through the Holy Spirit. Christ is divine and you are the
branches. He is the Master, and you are
the disciples. And what that means, beloved, is
that your life is supposed to be more and more like His life.
And this is how we are supposed to walk and how we are supposed
to please God. I think I've been Apostle Paul,
you have been doing it already, and all you have to do is to
keep doing it more and more. So you see that is how this
instruction comes in and through our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, because the instruction is not about legalism.
We are not about to abstain from sexual immorality so that we can
obtain the standard of God, because that would be impossible
for us. But we are going to do this in
response to the to the salvation that we have received from Jesus
Christ and it is carried out in our union with Him.
And with that we will now go to our second point.
Our second point is that the call is a call to holiness.
What we have in the passage that we are looking into is God's
will in Christ Jesus for our sanctification.
And to remind you, brothers and sisters, the definition of
sanctification is that is it is the process of growing in
holiness. This whole passage is a call to
holiness, and holiness is mentioned in First Thessalonians
483 times, 1 to 8, three times. So the first one young world,
the sanctification of verse three that can also be
translated to holiness. And then the same word is found
in verse 4 and in four verse 7. So able study now means Bahor
meron programming observation about the repetitive words.
So words we had new word neon eye importante.
So since we have seen the word holy in this passage three
times, then that means the word holiness is very important in
this message. To be holy means to be set
apart. God says in first Peter 116 You
shall be holy, for I am holy. Although we know that no one can
be holy in the same way that God is holy, because God is
different, He is completely set apart from sin and from all
kinds of evil. However, brothers and sisters,
because we are called children of God, then we ought to become
like Him. So if God has nothing to do with
sin, then we also should have nothing to do with sin.
Then we are to strive for that in our lives.
Here in this passage, we are told that we are to be holy with
regard to our sexuality. The world around us has its own
way of behaving. Kayanga was averse pipe.
It speaks about the passion of loss of the gentiles, the
unbelieving world. When they see a beautiful
person, the first thing that comes into their mind is how to
get what they want from that person because they are driven
by their loss. So they go from one sexual
partner to another without giving it a second thought.
Every weekend it's someone new, it's a different person and they
do this because they don't know God and that means they don't
have a healthy and friendly relationship with Him.
They are not at peace with God and so that is the reason why
they live this way. However, brothers and sisters,
we do know God and if we do know God, then we should be different
or set apart from the world. We should be distinct from the
rest of the world. Therefore, this passion of lust
that is very evident in the unbelieving Gentiles must not be
our story. Instead, if we are Christians,
then we should be controlling our bodies in holiness and in
honour because as Paul says in First Corinthians 6, our bodies
are temples of the Holy Spirit and that means it matters what
we do with our bodies also also in terms of our sexuality.
So we just can't do whatever we want.
We just can't obey whatever the first thing that pops up into
our mind. But we have to learn how to
control our lust and our desires.
We have to know how to say no to our passions and in order to
learn this magkapatid, we have to start by praying for the help
of the Holy Spirit, because we know that in ourselves we don't
have the power to to defeat the power of lust, but the Holy
Spirit does. That's why we should begin with
prayer, and then we further learn this by reminding
ourselves of what God's will is for our lives as revealed in His
Word. And then lastly, when our minds
are clear kapak tayo I valanti nakahara temptation, then we
should be committed to do the right thing.
I think is Wagner thing Ilalagay young acting Massarelli
supposition Alam natin tayo I made them cause some problem
Cristiano ohh the Mallard not Bible Malabanan young Las at
young temptation kita yota was. After that, we will put
ourselves on a situation that we will be tempted.
If we are going to do that, then we are just fooling ourselves.
Mangaka Patti. So what we should do is that we
should pray for the power of the Holy Spirit.
We should remind ourselves of the will of God in our lives
when it comes to our sexuality and when our minds our is clear.
We should be committed to not put ourselves in a situation
where we know we will all be tempted.
Well, sometimes you will hear about these people who will call
themselves as sex positive Christians.
If that is the first time you ever heard that at Nashua there
is such a term as sex positive Christians and this so-called
Christians. They think that churches like us
are too negative about our sexuality.
They think that we have just too many strict rules and they say
that you know, God's will for our lives is for us to enjoy and
to celebrate our sexuality. Welcome to thousand.
I would certainly agree with them, provided that our
sexuality will always be within the bounds that God has revealed
in the Bible. Because apart from marriage,
sexuality with God will come with a lot of problems because
the only natural and rightful place of of sex is only within
the context of marriage. While Anna Ibaba don't unsex
another opening bounds non marriage then 100% we can be
positive about it. So the call here is to holiness
and self-control, and when that call is heeded, then things will
be moving in the right direction.
And it's for our own good, and it's for our own flourishing.
And in verse 6, there's one more element to this call to
holiness. Sexual sin often involves
transgression or are wrong against another person.
Naturally, we think of the harmful, harmful effect caused
by cheating and adultery because when you commit cheating or
adultery, you are hurting the other person's spouse by doing
that act, regardless of how healthy or unhealthy their
marriage is. Marathi Just because someone is
in an unhappy relationship, or in an unhealthy or even in an
abusive marriage, it does not give us a green light to commit
adultery with them. Because adultery is adultery,
and it's still wicked and we can never ever justify it.
But there is another angle to this, and it has to do with the
Lord's Supper. Whenever we have the Lord's
Supper, we hear the Lord's Supper form, and we are again
reminded that those who don't keep their bodies pure within or
outside the bonds of marriage, those who persist in sin and do
not abstain themselves from sexual immorality, are not
supposed to partake in the Lord's Supper.
Why? Because they are going to bring
judgment upon themselves. That the Scriptures teaches us
that they are not only bringing judgment upon themselves, but
they are also inviting the wrath of God upon the whole
congregation. And that is what we will read in
First Corinthians 11. So if there is someone in our
congregation who is not abstaining from sexual
immorality and still participating in the Lord's
Supper, in the Lord's Supper, then, brothers and sisters, it
affects us all. It does not only affect that
person, it affects us all because they are not only
transgressing against God, but they are also transgressing
against their brothers and sisters.
And that makes sexual immorality in the church a very selfish
sin. The Beyond no.
When we do that, the whole congregation will suffer the
wrath of God, and this kind of disobedience will receive grave
consequences. And there are natural
consequences to sexual immorality, and one of them is
the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted disease.
And nobody there are sexually transmitted diseases that are
curable, but there are some types that are debilitating and
incurable. That's why not commit nonsexual
immorality. And then when they enter into
marriage, they struggle with sexual intimacy, and the
consequences goes on and on and on.
But our passage this afternoon focuses on the grave spiritual
consequence of sexual immorality and not abstaining from it.
In verse 6 it says that the Lord Jesus is The Avengers in all
these things. And when we say that he is an
avenger in all these things, it means that He is someone who
brings justice. Vengeance is mine.
I will repay, says the Lord. Vengeance means avenge.
Avenging it means repaying. It means bringing justice.
And when Christ returns, he will judge the world, and he will
bring his justice, and he will bring his vengeance.
But for Christians, this is nothing for you to fear.
If you are someone who is struggling with the temptation
of sexual immorality, but you hate your sin and you are
fighting your sin, and you are trusting in God that He has
forgiven your sin through Christ, then you are then you
have nothing to fear. Then you have to be at peace.
On the contrary, you have to look forward to the coming of
Jesus Christ. However, if you live in sin and
if you don't want to repent and you are still undergoing or you
are still committing sexual immorality, then I'm afraid this
warning is here for you. So pay attention.
Christ is coming to judge the unrepentant sinners.
And let's let us take note what God says in First Corinthian 6.
In First Corinthian 6, there is a list there of people who will
not inherit the Kingdom of God. That means there is a list of
people who will not be saved, who will not enter heaven, and
the list includes those who are sexually immorals, the
adulterers, and those who practice sexual or those who
practice homosexuality. All of those sins that were
mentioned are sins against the 7th commandment.
So if you live in those sins and you don't hate them and you
don't fight them, then I'm afraid probably you are not a
Christian and you are not going to heaven.
If that is true, my friend, then my heart breaks for you, and I
believe that every true Christian's heart will break for
you. So don't go this way.
It's far better to turn from our sin and to turn to Christ and
find forgiveness and life in Him.
He stands with His open arms, ready to embrace anyone who
comes to Him with brokenness, with a humble heart, with
repentance of their sins. In Marapatti, the weightiness of
what this passage is is underlined in verse 8.
Because the seven commandment and everything that flows in it,
it is from the Bible. It's not from human beings.
The 7th commandment is given to us by God.
It is God who instituted marriage from the very
beginning. It is God who ordained that
marriage would be a lifelong covenant between a man and a
woman. So if you are going to disregard
this teachings, then you are not disregarding man, but you are
disregarding God. And that is a massively
dangerous thing to do, because disregarding God is like
slapping him in the face. And imagine it's slapping an
infinitely holy God in the face. What a dreadful thing to do, and
what a foolish thing to do. And it's even more dreadful and
foolish when we consider that the Holy Spirit dwells in all of
us because God poured us the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not only poured out to the Apostle Paul
or to a certain group of elite special Christians.
No, the Holy Spirit is poured out to the church.
So all of us are being indwelt now by the Holy Spirit.
And since we have been receiving, since we have
received the Holy Spirit, and since we have the presence and
the power of the Holy Spirit, then we must keep in step with
the Holy Spirit. And that means that we should
obey God by taking seriously what He says, by abstaining from
sexual immorality. Beloved, sexual lust is one of
the most powerful forces on earth.
Alam Nuba, that in response to sexual stimuli, our own bodies
produces its own opioides. No wonder the power of lust is
comparable to drugs. And sometimes it can feel like
our own bodies wants to destroy us with the loss that is within.
And that not only that, we also have the world.
Sexuality is an area where the world is putting enormous
pressure on the church, and often successfully so.
And to top it off, we also have Satan who wants to destroy the
church from the inside out by having us thoroughly compromised
when it comes to our sexual integrity.
So, brothers and sisters, it's only in Christ and in His power
that we will be able to stand a chance against these formidable
forces. So look to Him for your
forgiveness. Let's look to Christ for the
forgiveness of our sexual sins. Let's look to Him for the
perfect obedience that we need to stand before God, but also
let us look to Him to live in union with Him as one of His
disciples. Amen.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty and Most Holy God,
thank you for the Lord Jesus and what He did on the cross to
bring us peace with you. We have transgressed the Seven
Commandment in various ways and we need Christ Blood to cover
us. Thank you for Jesus and his
perfect life of obedience to we need that perfect obedience in
order to be in fellowship with you, and you proved it in your
Son. But we also thank you for the
moral teaching of Your Word. We thank you for the Seven
Commandment and the way it leads us to blessing and to
flourishing. Please help us all, whether we
are young or old, to abstain from sexual immorality.
Give us the strength with your Holy Spirit to hate all sexual
sin and fight against it with Your Spirit.
Please give us power to control our bodies in holiness and in
honour. Ohh.
God, please help us to be holy like you are holy, for your
glory and for our good. Amen.